Page:Tolstoy - Tales from Tolstoi.djvu/320

Tales from Tolstoi and buy back the sins of the robber. If thou dost not redeem them thou wilt have to stand in his place."

And the godson said, "But how, then, am I to redeem his sins?"

And the godfather said, "When thou hast drawn as much sin out of the world as thou hast now put into it, then thou wilt have redeemed both thine own sins and the sins of the robber."

"But how, then, am I to draw evil out of the world?" asked the godson.

Then said the godfather, "Go right before thee towards the rising of the sun, and thou wilt come to a plain whereon dwell men. Observe what these people do, and teach them of thine own experience. Then go on further still, and observe what thou seest, and on the fourth day thou wilt come to a wood, and in this wood is a cell, and in this cell lives an old hermit; tell unto him all that has befallen thee. He will teach thee further. And when thou hast done all that the old hermit tells thee to do, then thou wilt have redeemed the robber's sins and thine own sins also."

Thus spake the godfather, and with that he put his godson outside the gate.

The godson went on his way. As he went he thought to himself, "How am I to draw evil out of the world? They draw evil out of the world by 270